洪荒之力hóng huāng zhī lì

All my strength

wǒ shǐ chū le hóng huāng zhī lì!我使出了洪荒之力！I gave it everything!

洪荒之力 means all the strength you have, the most effort you can give. It became a meme in August 2016, when the swimmer Fu Yuanhui told a TV reporter at the Rio Olympics that she had already used hers.

Took off: 2016
Started in: The Rio Olympics
Today: A classic

What it means

洪荒 is an old word for the chaos at the start of the world, so the phrase is literally “the power of the primal chaos”. It sounds grand on purpose. People use it for big efforts and small ones, and it is funnier when the task is small.

How people use it

The phrase is dated now, but people still know it and use it as a joke: you can say you used your 洪荒之力 to finish a bowl of noodles or to get out of bed.

亮亮

起床了吗？九点上课
qǐ chuáng le ma? jiǔ diǎn shàng kè
Are you up? Class is at nine.
起了，用了洪荒之力
qǐ le, yòng le hóng huāng zhī lì
I’m up. It took all my strength.
那快点，要迟到了
nà kuài diǎn, yào chí dào le
Then hurry, you’ll be late.
刷牙的力气都没了
shuā yá de lì qi dōu méi le
I have no strength left to brush my teeth.

More examples

为了这次考试，我使出了洪荒之力。
wèi le zhè cì kǎo shì, wǒ shǐ chū le hóng huāng zhī lì.
I gave this exam everything I had.
今天搬家，我的洪荒之力都用完了。
jīn tiān bān jiā, wǒ de hóng huāng zhī lì dōu yòng wán le.
Moving house today used up all my strength.

Where it came from

The phrase was already used in 花千骨, a 2015 fantasy TV drama, for a dangerous ancient power.

On 8 August 2016, Fu Yuanhui reached the final of the 100 m backstroke in Rio. In a TV interview by the pool, she heard her time and looked surprised. Asked if she had held anything back, she said 没有保留！我已经用了洪荒之力了！, “No! I’ve already used my primal power!” Some reports wrote the verb as 使出, the usual verb with this phrase, and the examples on this page use it. Her open, laughing reaction made it one of the most shared moments of the Games in China. She went on to win bronze.

That December, 咬文嚼字 put 洪荒之力 first on its list of the ten most popular phrases of 2016.

The original. A TV interview by the pool: Fu Yuanhui, with wet hair, opens her eyes wide and laughs when the reporter tells her the time. Wikipedia’s article on her covers the interview. Fu Yuanhui on Wikipedia